The one thing separating your sin from God's wrath is the Man in the middle. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 18 Q. And who is this mediator— true God and at the same time truly human and truly righteous? A. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God. Summary Paul’s reminder that there is one God echoes the words spoken to the Israelites as they journeyed through the wilderness. This is expressed in the Shema, which comes from Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the Lord is one.” For the Israelites these words would have been a reminder that they serve the one true living God, not the idols worshiped by surrounding nations. Likewise, Paul expresses that there is one God and continues that there is also one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. As we know, Jesus is more than our mediator, he is also our redeemer. Jesus gave himself as a ransom, paying a price to secure our freedom from our bondage to sin. A price had to be paid as God’s punishment on sin, and Jesus paid that price on our behalf. Dig Deeper A mediator is the “middle-man” in a dispute. It is the role of the mediator to go between the various sides in a dispute and work towards reconciliation. In this case, it is humanity and God who are “in dispute” with one another. As a result of our fallen nature, humanity is at odds with God via our rebellion and refusal to obey God's law. Despite the deposition of human hearts against God, we have peace with God because of Jesus’ work of reconciliation. Jesus is not the first mediator between God and his people. Moses, for example, served as mediator between God and his people. And while there have been other mediators, Christ is superior to them all. Not only is Jesus our deliverer, but he also continues to mediate on our behalf. Jesus is the one mediator Paul refers to in 1st Timothy. You need no other mediator, no saints to pray on your behalf, or priests to hear your confession, because Jesus is already your perfect mediator, continuing to speak on your behalf even now. Take great comfort in knowing the one speaking on your behalf is the same who was willing to take the penalty that you deserved. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you would fully trust in Christ as your mediator, and that you would submit all things to His Lordship (v8-15) ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Acts 12

To fully enjoy the comfort & assurance of your fully accomplished salvation, you must make every effort! Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1 Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death? A. That I am not my own, but belong— body and soul, in life and in death— to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Summary Maybe you've heard the trite little Christian saying that "Jesus + nothing = everything." Peter would have loved it! It nicely summarizes the opening statement of his second letter: Christ's power: has given us everything we need; through our knowledge of Him; since: He called us by His own glory and goodness and He has given us His promises. It's truths like this that provide you with the 'assurance of eternal life' that the Catechism mentions. Your certainty comes from the fact that Christ has fully accomplished your salvation, and there's nothing you need to add to it. Yet Peter prescribes more addition! In v5 he writes, make every effort to add... not to your salvation, because that's complete in Christ, but add to your faith. He repeats this command to make every effort again in v10, and this time he explains why: to confirm your calling and election. So certainly be assured of your salvation, but at the same time make every effort to live a godly life. The good works that result from these efforts will bolster the assurance and confidence you've already been given. Dig Deeper This famous first question and answer of the Catechism is like a warm blanket in a cold world, reminding you that your future is fully secured in Christ. But notice that even these words of comfort end with a call to action to 'wholeheartedly live for Him.' This is one of the great tensions of Christianity. Certainly rest in the thought that Christ is 'your only comfort in life and in death,' but in order to fully enjoy this rest you must continually make every effort to gratefully respond to the gift you've been given. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father who has set His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ over His eternal kingdom (v11); ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the strength to make every effort to live wholeheartedly for Christ. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Mark 4

creation in Christ; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 2

Dig Deeper Psalm 24 is a Psalm David wrote about 1,000 years before Jesus ascended into heaven that describes ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Matthew 22

Don't let the comforts in this world distract you from the true Comforter. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 53 Q. What do you believe concerning “the Holy Spirit”? A. First, he, as well as the Father and the Son, is eternal God. Second, he has been given to me personally, so that, by true faith, he makes me share in Christ and all his blessings, comforts me, and remains with me forever. Summary It might seem odd in the midst of a week in which we've been focused on the person and work of the Holy Spirit to read from a passage that doesn't seem to mention the Holy Spirit at all. Paul here certainly makes reference to God the Father, as well as the Lord Jesus Christ, but he seems to just ignore the third member of the Trinity. Earlier this week we noted that the Holy Spirit is often referred to as the 'shy' member of the Trinity, since His role is to often focus our attention on the work of the Father and the Son, and in doing so the Spirit often stays in the background. So it's not all that surprising that the Spirit seems set to the side in this passage. But we also were reminded that the Holy Spirit really isn't all that shy, since He's the member of the Godhead we hear from the most, in that every word of the Bible was breathed out by Him. In fact, the verses we read today are all about the Spirit! We read one reference to the Father, three references to the Son, and at least six references to the Holy Spirit! The reason you didn't notice Him right away is because He's camouflaged: He was never directly referred to, but He was described with the repetitive use of the Greek word paraklēsis, the word Jesus often uses to refer to the Holy Spirit, which is translated here as comfort. The Holy Spirit is the "God of all comfort (v3)." Dig Deeper You probably think of 'comfortable' as being a condition in which you have no pain or discomfort. The chair you fall asleep in is comfortable, whereas the one that hurts your back is uncomfortable. One dictionary defines comfort as 'freedom from pain or constraint." So when hearing that the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter, you might be tempted to think He's not really present in your life because of how many uncomfortable aspects there are. A life filled with the Comforter ought to be filled with comfort, right? But keep in mind the literal meaning of the Greek word paraklēsis: the para part means alongside (like a parapro, paralegal, and paramedic work alongside a teacher, lawyer and doctor), and klēsis means to call out. So the Holy Spirit is the one who comes alongside you in "in all your troubles" and calls out to you words of "comfort and salvation." The reason people like us don't feel like we're experiencing the Holy Spirit as often as we'd like is because we're so distracted by the comforts we have in this world that we don't feel a need for "the God of all comfort." Make a habit of pushing those distractions away, so that that you can hear the Holy Spirit coming alongside you reminding you that your only comfort in life and in death is that you belong to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ (keep reading v8-11 to see how the Holy Spirit brought this comfort to Paul when he "despaired of life itself"). AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort (v1) ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for the physical comforts He's given you, but pray that they don't distract you from the Holy Spirit coming alongside and calling out to you. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Romans 3

know salvation; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 John 2

The title is more than a religious label; you share an anointing with our Savior. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 32 Q. But why are you called a Christian? A. Because by faith I am a member of Christ and so I share in his anointing. I am anointed to confess his name, to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity. Summary This past week, we have focused on the significance of Jesus’s mediatorial office of prophet, priest, and king bound up in his title of Christ, the anointed one. Since those who follow Jesus are called Christians, a word that literally means 'little Christs,' what does it mean to share in this title? Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 32 applies how the prophet, priest, and king roles translate into the life of a Christian, as well. By faith, you are united with Christ and are anointed by the Holy Spirit to live for Him. John brings up this anointing in this passage of his first letter. The first marker is knowing and confessing the truth that Jesus is the Christ! This is the work of the Christian as a prophet: professing the truth of God, which God’s Word and Spirit testify to us. Those who deny Jesus as Christ are the deceivers. This past week, we have heard from many places in the Bible that Jesus is fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah: He is the true Prophet, Priest, and King. Yet these claims faced opposition through false teachers who tried to lead these young Christians astray that John is addressing. So, John directs them to abide in the truth of God’s Word that they have been taught from the beginning. This means you need to meditate on (think deeply about) Jesus and the promise of eternal life. Dig Deeper It can be easy to forget what it means to be a Christian in today’s world. We face different opponents and false teachers than John’s audience did in the first century, but his advice is still sound. His language in this passage echoes the promise of the new covenant described in Jeremiah 31, especially verses 33 through 34, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Make sure you personally know God and His grace! Christ delivered on the new covenant promises and shared its blessings by sending the Holy Spirit. So that in claiming the name Christian, as prophets, we can boldly confess Jesus as the Christ proclaiming the truths of His Word. As a priesthood of believers, we can live as sacrifices of thanks because of Christ’s once-and-for-all sacrifice on the cross. And as royalty belonging to God’s kingdom, we strive in this world against sin and the devil while looking forward to reigning with our Lord for eternity. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: The Holy One who is righteousness and truth ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Abide in Jesus and what He teaches you through His Word. “Fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience” (1 Tim 1:18-19) ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Galatians 3

But the Ephesian flock wasn't left defenseless. Ephesus, and from the letters that Jesus wrote to the seven churches, including Ephesus, in Revelation 2- Paul doesn't really give these Ephesian elders any specific tactics they can use to defend themselves The threat Paul warned these Ephesian elders of two millennia ago still exists today. Today: 1 Peter 2

Heartlight.org Romans 16:25–27 (NIV) CONTEXT: For this final week in our year long study of the Canons reading some of the Bible's greatest doxologies - words of praise & glory given to our Sovereign God. 25 2 - Limited Atonement Point 3 - Total Depravity Point 4 - Irresistible Grace Point 5 - Perseverance Summary Yesterday we read those amazing words from Ephesians 1 upon which the entirety of the doctrines Today: Revelation 22

Matthew 14:13–21 (NASB95) 13 Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded , and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, 20 They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. 21 There were about five But you've been filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and enabled to do the impossible (Ephesians 3:20-21).